


Friends By Fête

by Astrarian



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Jas & her ragtag family, Player - Stardew Valley, Update 1.5 spoilers, Vincent & his stressed family, a year in Stardew festivals
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:49:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28386534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Astrarian/pseuds/Astrarian
Summary: [Update 1.5 spoilers, okay!]Festivals are the most exciting days in Stardew Valley, maybe even better than birthdays—Jas and Vincent think so, anyway. The first festival of the year, the Egg Festival, has been especially exciting for the past two years. First, farmer Ari had moved to their grandpa’s old farm plot outside town, and last year Vincent’s dad had just come home from his overseas tour. This spring is no exception on the exciting front: there’s a newcomer in town, and he’s the same age as Jas and Vincent.Over the course of one year and nine festivals, the three children become friends, and teach one another that family isn’t just about who you’re related to.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15





	Friends By Fête

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously, this is full of spoilers for the 1.5 update, at least until the mobile/console versions drop. No beta, all mistakes my own, sorry in advance.
> 
> The farmer has a unisex name I consider neutral (Ari) and is referred to with they/them pronouns, because their gender identity doesn't matter in this narrative. Although Jas and Vincent use Miss/Mrs and Mister/Mr for the player in the game, they don't here.
> 
> By happenstance I got Leo to move to Stardew Valley at the beginning of spring. This idea swiftly followed.

When Jas comes home from town, where she’s been looking at the tiny brown fish that return to the river in spring, she finds the inside of the house empty. But she knows where Shane and Aunt Marnie will be—out back. It’s the same place they’ve been every morning and afternoon for the past week, because they’re preparing for tomorrow’s Egg Festival.

She goes straight through the kitchen and out of the back door into the coop, to find Shane cuddling Charlie and Aunt Marnie cooing to some of the other chickens.

“It’s tomorrow!” Jas shouts.

Shane laughs. Jas sees that Aunt Marnie is cradling an egg carton under one arm and runs to her, reaching up to take the carton.

“Are you excited, Jas?” Shane asks as Jas flips the lid open. Rows of smooth white and brown eggs lie inside - only one dimple is empty. 

“Excited to win,” Jas declares. “Even if I don’t win the Egg Hunt, I’m still going to find more eggs than Vincent.”

“The hens have worked really hard,” Shane says. “There’ll be more than enough eggs to go around.”

Freed from holding the carton, Aunt Marnie smiles down at Jas, stroking the top of her head. “Will you keep holding that for me, please? Did you have a good day?”

“Mostly I wanted it to be over so it will be tomorrow already.” Jas watches Aunt Marnie place one final egg into the carton. The egg is white and still has small blue feathers on it. Aunt Marnie uses the same hand to gently stroke the feathers off the egg shell. When Jas touches the egg, it’s warm and slightly damp.

“It’s fresh from Charlotte; her last one today,” Aunt Marnie says.

Charlie clucks as Shane stands up, displacing her from his lap. “Yeah, think so,” he agrees. “I’ll take these to the saloon with me tonight and give them to Emily so she can colour them first thing. I’ll do a final check in the morning.”

“I wish I could paint them,” Jas says glumly. She runs her finger over the warm egg again and imagines all the pictures she’d paint: feathers and flowers and friends and… 

“But then you’d know what all the eggs look like before the Egg Hunt. That would be cheating,” Aunt Marnie says, giggling and stroking her head again. “Come on, you. Let’s go inside and make dinner. The sooner we go to sleep, the sooner we will wake up and it’ll be tomorrow.” 

* * *

The last thing Jas remembers is staring at her ceiling, giddy with excitement. She thought she’d never go to sleep! But she must have, because when she opens her eyes again to a cupboard door banging shut in the kitchen, there’s dim grey daylight around her curtains.

It’s today!

She skitters to the kitchen, calling out, “Hi!” as she slides through the doorway. Shane is drying his hands on a towel.

“Hey, you.” Aunt Marnie pulls Jas to her side and squeezes her. The smell of hay and warm milk surrounds her. “It’s still early. You can stay in bed a bit longer.”

“No way. I’m too excited.” Jas dances on the spot just to make her point.

Aunt Marnie says, “Okay, well, I’m going to make omelets for breakfast. Shane thinks we should have hashbrowns, though.”

Shane grunts. His hair is all messy, like he hasn’t brushed it yet. He’s not good in the mornings.

“What do you think?” Aunt Marnie asks her.

“It’s the Egg Festival,” Jas says, looking at Shane. Why would he want hashbrowns during the Egg Festival?

“I think we’re going to be eating so many eggs today we don’t need to eat more eggs at home. And then we could give these to Emily for the Egg Hunt. But we can if you want, Jas. I like omelets just fine.”

“I’d like omelet,” Jas says. “Can I have cheese in mine?”

Aunt Marnie laughs. “Of course. It’s a special day, after all. Shane, cheese in yours as well?”

Shane’s mouth twists. “You don’t…”

“I’m making omelets for all three of us, Shane. The question is whether you’d like cheese as well.”

“Cheese, please, and hot pepper too,” Shane says after a few moments, almost smiling.

“Blergh!” Jas protests. “Hot peppers make my mouth burn.”

“I’ve got to warm up,” Shane says. “It’s still chilly out there early on. I had to check for more eggs for Emily.”

“Did you go out like that?” Jas never leaves the house without her hair done up in her ribbons and bow. Only Aunt Marnie and Shane have seen her without.

“Wow,” Shane says, but he laughs so Jas knows he’s not actually upset with her. “No. I didn’t have to go at all. There were just enough fresh eggs for us to have these omelets.”

“Well, Shane, perhaps you’d like to wash up before breakfast? You too, Jas.” Aunt Marnie moves towards the stove. “It’ll take a little while to make all three omelets. And then afterwards we’ll be ready to head into town immediately.”

“Won’t they still be setting up until nine?” Shane asks.

Aunt Marnie looks into an egg carton on the countertop and starts gently tapping the eggs. “I’m sure if I ask the Mayor nicely, he’ll let us in.” 

“Ask the Mayor nicely,” Shane repeats.

The conversation is boring, and now is Jas’s chance to get to the bathroom first, so she creeps out of the kitchen. She’s already closed and locked the door to the bathroom by the time Shane realises she has him beat.

* * *

On their way into town, Jas runs ahead of Marnie and Shane. There’s still a slight chill that makes her skin prickle wherever the air touches her, and running means that she’s good and warm by the time she hits the paved street outside Vincent’s house. Down the way, she spots the familiar green jacket and blonde hair that mean Vincent’s dad is standing by the river again, looking into the water. He does it all the time, which makes sense in spring and summer when the river is really nice, but he even does it when it’s cold. His jacket must be really warm.

He turns his head in her direction, probably hearing her footsteps, and she doesn’t quite trip. She skids to a halt outside Vincent’s house—his house too. Not knowing what else to do, she waves at him.

He waves back. It’s nice because sometimes he just stares at her, or worse, doesn’t seem to see her at all. She walks through the front yard to Vincent’s door and knocks.

“Just a minute!” she hears Vincent’s mom call from inside. “Sam, can you get that?”

Jas looks up at the fresh green leaves on the trees in their yard while she waits for Sam to open the door.

“Hi Jas, we’re nearly ready,” he says, before he yells over his shoulder, “Vincent, guess who!”

“Be right there, Jas!” Vincent hollers.

“Okay!”

After a few too many seconds, in which Jas scrapes the toe of her shoe against the doorstep and wishes Shane and Aunt Marnie walked faster, Sam speaks again. “Not seen you much so far this year,” he says. “You liking spring?”

Jas nods. “It’s good. Um.”

“How’s school going with Penny and my brother?”

“It’s good,” she says again. “Um. We haven’t had as much time with Miss Penny as usual though. She said something came up for a little while so we should go round town and make notes on all the flowers and crops and fish that are special to spring. It’s nice though. I like being outside in spring after we spend all winter in the library.”

Sam nods and clears his throat. “Ah, yeah, Penny told me about that. It’ll make sense soon.”

Jas tilts her head, surprised that Sam knows anything about anything. “Really?”

“Sure. Are you excited about today?”

“I want to find more eggs than Vincent.” She lowers her voice conspiratorially. “I know he’s your brother but shhh, don’t tell him.”

“Secret’s safe with me,” says Sam. Behind her, Jas hears Aunt Marnie’s footsteps, while inside the house, something crashes onto the floor. 

“Oh, Vincent, what was that? Be more careful!” his mom cries.

Vincent appears in the hallway and sprints towards the door. “Sorry mom!” he yells. Jas steps out of the way so he doesn’t crash into her. “Hi Jas!”

“Hi Vincent! Are you ready?”

“I’m ready!” He starts to step outside.

“Hold on,” Sam says, grabbing Vincent’s shoulder while he’s halfway down the doorstep, so that he ends up sort of hanging in space off the doorstep, like he’s levitating. Vincent and Jas both groan. “Mom, is Vincent actually ready?” Sam calls back into the house.

Vincent spins his arms like a windmill and groans again. “Saaam.”

“Is Marnie here?” his mom answers.

“She’s here,” Sam says, while Aunt Marnie also calls, “I’m right here, Jodi!”

Vincent’s mom appears in the hallway, looking a bit like Aunt Marnie does when she’s been chasing the chickens around or trying to convince one of the little calves that she’s trying to help, not hurt. “It’s nice to see you. Hello, Jas. Vincent, take your coat.”

“Mom, I’m fine,” Vincent complains.

“Take your coat,” she repeats. “It’s still a little chilly.”

“Here, bud.” Sam tugs Vincent back with one hand and hands him his coat with the other. “It’s funny that you even want to go so early. What are you going to do until the Egg Hunt?”

“How can you say that?” Vincent asks, sounding very serious. “There’s so many eggs, Sam. We’re going to try them all and do everything. Right, Jas?”

Jas nods enthusiastically.

“But what is ‘everything’?” Sam asks.

Aunt Marnie giggles. “Someone’s forgotten what it was like to be a kid. Okay, you two. Vincent’s ready, so let’s go. Shane’s waiting.”

Vincent bounces and waves over his shoulder. “See you later, Mom! Bye, Sam. Come on, Jas. Race ya!”

They run to the end of the yard, past Shane leaning against the mailbox, and onto the street. Down the street, Miss Emily stands at her door with a covered basket.

“Hi Miss Emily!” Jas cries. She kind of wants to yank the blanket away to see the eggs underneath, but she remembers what Aunt Marnie said about cheating. Still, she veers off briefly in Emily’s direction, before veering back, nearly tripping over Vincent’s ankles.

“Good morning, Vincent and Jas!” Miss Emily calls back. “Don’t fall over each other!”

“We won’t!” they shout back, grinning at each other.

As they dash past his dad on the other side of the road, Vincent shouts out to him. “Hi Dad!” 

Jas catches a glimpse of his dad waving again over her shoulder before he’s gone too, left in their dust. She just about has breath to laugh as they turn onto the stretch that leads up to the town square. Panting, they stop at their usual starting point beside one of the lamp posts.

“Are… you ready?” Vincent asks, between gasps.

“Wait a… moment…” Jas answers. She places her hands on her knees and drops her chin to concentrate on her breathing.

Once they’re both breathing normally, they glance at each other. “Go!” they shout at the same time and they’re off, pounding down the street to the square.

Vincent wins this time, crossing the finish line between two lamp posts first, but only by a bit. “You’re so fast,” Jas says, gasping again.

“Children!” says a startled voice. “You’re too early!”

It’s Mayor Lewis, and while Vincent nervously watches him walk towards them, Jas looks around at the other villagers setting up: Mister Gus is setting out plates of eggs on long tables, and Mister Pierre’s putting the final touches on his stall. Best of all, Miss Penny is wearing pink bunny ears while she sets out chairs around the square. Next to her is a boy who looks like he is about Jas’s and Vincent’s age, wringing his hands.

Jas blinks, going still, and stares. There are no other kids in Pelican Town their age and the tourists don’t come for the Egg Festival.

“What?” Vincent mutters to her. “You’re all bug-eyed.”

“Who’s that?” she asks, pointing. Vincent follows her finger to the boy and his own eyes turn a bit buggy.

Mayor Lewis stops in front of them. “Shouldn’t you both be with your families?” he asks, folding his arms.

Jas reluctantly stops looking at the boy. “Aunt Marnie’s coming,” she blurts out. She’s pretty sure her aunt and the Mayor are good friends, because Aunt Marnie often says she’s meeting him at the saloon and he sometimes comes by late in the evening to talk to her. Only friends visit each other in the evenings—that is, other than farmer Ari. Ari will try to visit anyone at any time, as if they are always forgetting that people have to go to bed. One time Ari was outside the ranch at 6:30am wanting to buy stuff. Another time they came by in the middle of the night and ended up leaving pink cake and beer on the doorstep with a note that read, “Oops, got back later than I meant! Enjoy!” 

Ari’s definitely the best adult Jas knows. Ari is pretty much best friends with everyone in town, actually. So the reasoning still checks out. Only friends visit each other in the evenings.

Luckily, when Jas looks over her shoulder, she can see Shane and Aunt Marnie walking down the road to the square. Miss Emily is behind them. She waves at them quickly.

“See?” she says, turning back. _Not lying._ “And Vincent’s with us, his mom said it was okay.”

“Yep, they’re my shwap… chaperones. Otherwise Sam wouldn’t’ve let me out of the house in the first place,” Vincent says.

This is airtight reasoning and the Mayor knows it. His shoulders do that thing where they droop a bit. Jas and Vincent look at each other in triumph. “Okay, but you’re still too early,” Mayor Lewis says. “You’ll need to entertain yourselves for a few more minutes. Not in the square!”

“He gets to,” Vincent says, and he lifts a finger and points across the square at Miss Penny and the boy. “Why does he get to?”

Mayor Lewis looks at the strange boy. “Ah. Well, he’s new here and he came with Penny, who as you can see is helping to set up. That’s why. Now, she will introduce him to you later. I promise! I’m sure you three will be great friends. But in the meantime, why don’t you two race again?”

Jas frowns at the suggestion. This is the most important information they’ve received so far this year so _clearly_ racing isn’t what they should do right now. They should go over and introduce themselves. Thankfully, Mayor Lewis gets distracted by Aunt Marnie and Shane’s arrival.

“He’s new!” Vincent whispers to her. “And he’s with Miss Penny!”

“No-one new has moved to Stardew Valley for ages!”

“Not since Ari came to the farm! I want to meet him now,” Vincent says. “We should go over there.”

Shane, though, puts his hands on their shoulders before Vincent can move off, before Jas needs to stop him. “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry again.” His eyes twinkle. “How about we go and see what Gus has made, get the pick of the day? Poached eggs?”

Vincent’s whole face lights up. They both love all the festivals, but Vincent especially loves the Egg Festival because his mom loves Yoba and he’s not allowed to eat candy through the start of spring until his birthday, and then until the day of the Egg Festival comes. If his mom isn’t watching he can stuff himself with as many eggs—and candy—as he wants.

Actually, that’s true for Jas in a different way. Aunt Marnie gets worried that she’ll make herself sick if she eats as much as she wants.

So it’s not that Jas forgets about the boy. It’s just that she doesn’t normally get to eat again an hour after breakfast. Especially not candy, and especially not foil-wrapped chocolate eggs, which are easy to sneak into her pockets without Shane noticing.

* * *

Shane’s face glazes over in horror when he inevitably sets Gus off talking about cooking, just by mentioning how hard he and Aunt Marnie have been working with the hens to get enough eggs for the festival. Jas giggles around a mouthful of scrambled eggs on toast. 

“Yuck, Jas,” Vincent says when she accidentally sprays a bit of egg on his cheek, and even though it’s fair it’s super disgusting when he blows an eggy raspberry back at her. She grabs his hand and pulls him underneath the second food table.

They set up camp there, darting out to grab more snacks and loudly chat so that Shane never starts thinking they’re not nearby. He doesn’t see them snatching snacks. It’s pretty perfect… except eating chocolate straight after scrambled eggs makes her mouth feel sticky and dry… and eating mayonnaise straight after that leaves a really weird taste in her mouth… but all the food tastes too good to stop.

They’re busted by Miss Penny of all people. They’ve just slithered back underneath and are each picking the foil off their next chocolate eggs when the tablecloth to their side suddenly flips upwards to reveal their teacher.

“Eek!” Jas yelps, blinded by the sudden sunshine.

“Hello, you two,” Miss Penny says. “This is a nice den, isn’t it? Perfect for hiding treats in…”

Vincent’s way better at making things up on the spot than Jas is, and she glances at him desperately. 

Vincent’s hands fly away from his mouth. His cheeks are turning the same colour as his hair. “M-m-miss Penny, we were, we were only just trying a little bit of everything, to, to be polite!” 

Jas hopes that Miss Penny doesn’t notice Vincent’s pockets, which are bulging with eggs. He’s now trying to stuff his half-eaten one in there too, which… ew, gross—now there’s uncovered chocolate in his pockets. “Everyone always tries so hard when they make stuff for a festival,” Jas adds. “It’s rude not to try!”

Miss Penny looks at the chocolate around Vincent’s mouth, and then her eyes flick to the glittering bits of tinfoil across Jas’s lap. “It’s also rude to make yourselves sick on chocolate.” 

Jas’s cheeks heat up.

“I do understand, you know,” Miss Penny says. “Everything tastes really nice, doesn’t it?” Jas nods really quickly. “But it’s not very fair to everyone that hasn’t even got here yet, never mind had the chance to come past the food tables,” Miss Penny continues.

Jas ducks her head so that she doesn’t have to see Miss Penny looking disappointed anymore, because it makes her throat feel tight and hot. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Vincent doing the same thing.

“Can you guys come out here and put some back, please? And then there’s someone I’d like to introduce you to.”

Jas and Vincent glance at each other, eyes wide. _The boy!_ Jas mouths, and Vincent mouths, _Oh yeah!_

They scramble out into daylight and find themselves face to face with the newcomer—for a second only, until he sort of shrinks inside the enormous feathered poncho he’s wearing before he darts behind Miss Penny, making a weird noise. It… it’s a sort of _awwrk!_ sound. The only thing that Jas has ever heard that sounds like that—and it sounds _exactly_ like it—is a parrot squawk on television. He's not small, so Penny’s body doesn’t exactly hide him, but mostly what sticks out behind her is his hair, wild like a lion’s mane, wilder than Vincent’s or Sam’s, even messier than Shane’s first thing in the morning.

“Put the candy back, you two,” Miss Penny tells them. Vincent basically just throws his chocolate eggs across the table beside them, eyes glued to the boy. Jas pouts at him. It’s only when Miss Penny pouts at him too that he picks them up and dumps them on the correct plate.

“Thank you.” Penny steps diagonally backwards, revealing the boy, hunched up and more wide-eyed than Vincent or Jas getting surprise cake. “Vincent, Jas, this is Leo. Leo, this is Jas, and this is Vincent.”

Jas blushes now that the boy has a name and is an actual person rather than the latest interesting thing. “Umm, hi, Leo,” she manages to say.

“Y-yeah, hi, hello,” Vincent says. 

Leo blinks, eyes still as wide as saucers. He doesn’t reply. 

“Leo moved to Stardew Valley about a week ago,” Miss Penny says. “He’s living in the mountains near the Carpenter’s shop and the Adventurer’s Guild. Before that he lived in the Fern Islands, so he knows a lot about countryside living, as we’ve been learning.”

In her head Jas is adding so many checks in the interesting column about this new boy. But she can’t say that. She doesn’t know what to say at all.

“Wow, the Fern Islands,” Vincent says. “I’ve seen them on TV! There are so many animals and birds there. Have you seen them?”

“I used to live with the birds,” Leo says. If not for the fact he’s frowning harder than Vincent over a hard school question, Jas would think he’s joking. Who lives with birds? 

Except… Jas looks around, scanning the spots beneath the big trees at the edge of the square. Sure enough, wild man Linus is resting in the shade of the one beside Harvey’s clinic. Normally if Jas ever works up the nerve to look at him, he looks away. Today, he’s staring right at the four of them.

“You lived with birds?” Vincent says. He doesn’t sound weirded out. “Which ones?” he asks. 

“Parrots.” 

“I thought of parrots when I saw your shirt! It’s the colours.” Vincent nods firmly.

“They’re my family.” 

"Really? That sounds cool. Way cooler than my family. What’s it like living with parrots? I guess you haven’t been to the Egg Festival before.” Before Leo can answer Vincent gasps. “But if you lived with birds you’ve basically done the Egg Hunt in real life!”

“Why don’t you tell Leo about the egg hunt, Jas?” Miss Penny suggests.

Jas bites her lip, wishing Miss Penny hadn’t asked. Still, she does. “Um… Well, loads of eggs get hidden around town and this afternoon there’s a competition to find as many as we can in an hour. Miss Emily paints them all in bright colours and stuff so you’d think they aren’t so hard to find, right? But people hide them in really tricky places.” The corners of Leo’s mouth start to creep downwards so Jas rushes on. “It’s really fun. At the end we bring every egg we find back to Lewis and he counts them up and the person who finds the most wins!”

“What do you win?” asks Leo.

Jas falters. “Um… you just… win.”

“Winning’s the best,” Vincent declares.

“I think there’s a cash prize,” Miss Penny says.

“And I think Ari won a hat one time,” Jas adds. “Actually, last year Abigail found the most eggs and she got a hat too.”

Leo looks more interested. “Will Ari be here? I know them…”

“Ari rarely misses a festival. I’m sure they’re looking forward to a day off as much as the rest of us,” says Miss Penny.

“Except Pierre,” Vincent says.

“Except Pierre,” Miss Penny agrees, and they all giggle except Leo. Leo’s mouth curls and wobbles instead.

“You’re going to do the Egg Hunt… right?” Jas asks. “It’s the best part of the day. Plus you need the eggs you find to play the games afterwards.”

“There are more games?” Leo asks.

“Yes! There’s egg rolling, and the egg-and-spoon race—”

“I bet you can’t beat me!” Vincent cuts in, eyes sparkling at the idea of having someone new to race against.

“And the egg toss, and egg fighting. That’s my favourite. I’m pretty good at it.” Jas tosses her hair and grins smugly at Vincent, before she remembers that she doesn’t know Leo and schools her face back to normal.

“Jas wins like eight out of ten times,” Vincent says agreeably. “But she never beats me in the race. And I find more eggs too.” He sticks his tongue out at her.

“But I’m better at the egg toss!”

“Now, now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Miss Penny interjects smoothly. “Today’s a new day and I’m sure Leo will surprise you.” She smiles at Leo, and after a minute he nods slowly.

“I’d like to try,” he says.

“Great!” Vincent bounces on the spot. “I’m excited. I can’t wait!”

Jas groans. “It’s still hours away…”

It’s really hard to wait, but it’s also never that hard to find something to do, especially not when Miss Penny’s around—she’s always got at least five things for them to do Jas has never even thought of. So Jas loses track of time, playing chase with Vincent and looking out for daisies to make daisy chains with, even though she knows it’s still too early in spring, really.

Leo joins in for the most part, but he’s quite quiet as far as talking goes. Occasionally he makes those funny squawking sounds again, or little chirrups. Maybe that makes sense, though, since he used to live with parrots.

It’s kind of fun to have someone new playing with them, but it’s weird too. Vincent’s her best friend and as exciting as it is, they’re not used to having anyone else their age around.

Vincent does as many roly-polys in a row as he can without throwing up: seven, Jas counts. While he’s lying in the grass trying to recover, complaining about being dizzy, Jas pats his head. He pushes her hand away and she laughs. Then she looks over to Miss Penny and notices that she’s talking to Maru.

“Oh look, Maru’s here,” she says. If people living on the outskirts of town have now arrived…

“I wonder if Ari’s here now,” Vincent pants, clearly thinking the same thing.

“Ari?” Leo asks, which is the first thing he’s said in like, half an hour. “Why?”

“Over there.” Jas points to Pierre’s stall, on the road that leads to the bus stop and to Ari’s farm beyond. Shane and Ari are both standing at the stall, and as they watch, Ari grins at Shane and then strides towards the big tree outside the clinic. They’re probably going to talk to Linus. When Jas looks that way, she sees that Linus is still standing under the tree.

And he’s looking right at her again.

Linus makes her feel sort of nervous, because he’s so big and wild-looking, and since he lives outside he must be really tough. Most of the time she doesn’t see him. He lives up in the mountains near the lake, she thinks, and she isn’t allowed to go up there by herself (not that she really needs to when she lives right by the river anyway). But if she does see him foraging in the forest, or outside the library, he barely looks at her. It’s very weird that he’s looked at her twice already today.

Wait. Maybe he’s not staring at _her._ “Miss Penny said you live in the mountains,” she says, turning to Leo. “Do you know Linus?”

Leo’s eyes go wide. “Yes. I’m living really near him. He’s teaching me.”

Vincent rolls onto his side. “About what?” he asks between breaths.

“Just… everything. About town, and living near people… and all the food there is to find in the wild in Stardew Valley.”

“About people?” she repeats. Leo said he lived with birds, but… “Didn’t you live near people before?” she asks, uncertainly.

Because it’s not just a question of who lives with birds. Who lives _without_ people?

“Not really.” Leo’s eyes dart away from her towards Linus and Ari. She’s not sure what it means. She feels cold for a moment, and she shivers. She doesn’t want to ask—what she wants to do is run over to Shane and ask him to play with her. Or even Aunt Marnie, chatting to Mayor Lewis in the middle of the square.

She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand and frowns. She’s too old for that now.

“Well, I don’t know about Linus, but Miss Penny’s the _best_ teacher,” Vincent says to Leo. “She’s way prettier than Linus.” He blushes. “Um, don’t tell her I said that.”

Leo just looks a bit confused. “She’s just started teaching me a little bit as well.”

“Oh! Maybe that’s why she’s not been teaching us as much so far this year. You know, you should probably just come to school with us.” Vincent sits up. “It will be less boring with three of us.”

Leo nods. “Miss Penny and Mayor Lewis want me to.”

“Hey, Ari’s coming,” Jas interrupts.

Ari dashes over to their little group with the same spring in their step they always have. Jas doesn’t expect anything, but she can admit to herself she’s a little bit disappointed when Ari doesn’t pull out a fairy rose flower to give to her. Vincent gives her a look that means he thinks the same—sharing pink cake on the warm spring morning of the Egg Festival would have been awesome. It wouldn’t even be wrong. Cakes have eggs in them.

After Ari’s spoken to both Jas and Vincent, they nudge Leo. Leo follows Ari a short distance away. Jas watches them. Leo’s mouth moves so much that she’s sure he says more words to Ari in one minute than he’s said in pretty much the whole time they’ve been playing together.

Ari crouches down and says something that makes Leo smile a bit. Then Ari reaches into their backpack and pulls something bright green out into the open air. Ari pinches it between their thumb and fingers, holding it up in front of Leo.

Jas squints for a second until she realises it’s a feather. A nice one, but still, just a feather.

Leo’s whole face lights up, though. He looks really happy, like Vincent does when Ari gives him a snail, or when Shane eats pizza, or when anyone eats cake. She probably looks a bit like that when she gets cake.

Vincent nudges her. “What?”

“What?”

“You’re smiling,” he says.

“Oh! Wow. I didn’t even notice.”

“Silly,” Vincent giggles. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” she says.

Vincent looks where she’s looking. “What do you think of Leo?” 

“I don’t know,” she says. “We don’t really know him.”

Vincent shrugs. “He seems okay. But I’m waiting to see how many eggs he finds,” he says airily. “The best people find lots.”

“We all find lots,” Jas points out.

“You can’t all be the best,” Vincent says. “You have to find _lots_ lots,” he stresses. “Well, except you. You’re still my best friend, even when you find less eggs than me.”

Jas pouts at the reminder. “Fewer eggs,” she says primly.

Vincent blinks. “I don’t get it.” 

Jas giggles. “Miss Penny went through it three times, Vincent!”

Vincent sighs. “Maybe Leo will find that stuff hard as well.”

“Whatever,” she says. “It’s okay. You’re still my best friend too—even though I’m going to find _more_ eggs than you this year anyway.”

“Bet you’re not,” Vincent says, smirking at her. “That’s never happened.”

“Watch me,” Jas dares to say.

* * *

She ends up regretting it when, several hours later, they gather around Mayor Lewis and she has to hear him say that Vincent has found more eggs than her during the Egg Hunt. 

Vincent pumps his fist in the air. “Hooray! Told you!”

“Bet I still beat you in our egg fights,” she answers, folding her arms. Everyone chuckles.

Vincent even finds more eggs than Sam, which is a first, and he runs off to crow triumphantly at his brother for a bit. He’ll be back for the various afternoon races soon enough.

Leo finds more eggs than Jas too. He doesn’t seem very bothered that he loses out to Vincent by one egg. He’s more interested in just looking at the eggs he found, and he drifts off to sit at the side of the square to do so.

When Vincent’s not around, Jas just plays by herself, or reads, but that seems kind of rude when Miss Penny clearly wants them to be friends with Leo. And it’s not like Leo has anyone else—obviously Ari likes Leo, and she did see him talking to Linus before the Egg Hunt started, but Linus is definitely old and Ari is always busy.

She remembers, all of a sudden, how big and scary Pelican Town was when she first arrived. Aunt Marnie never made her do anything on her own before she was ready. Now she knows the town better than the back of her hand, or something.

Jas puts her basket down and then swoons down dramatically beside Leo on the ground, huffing over her loss. Leo flinches, then returns to running his fingers over all the painted eggs in his basket. Jas stretches out on her stomach for a moment, the cool grass tickling against her arms, but she stops being able to see the designs on the eggs in Leo’s basket so she sits up again, wondering what to say to him.

“You found lots,” she says after a while. “Well done.”

“Can I… look at yours?” he asks.

She hands him her basket; he does the same. Almost all of Leo’s eggs are painted in a way that reminds Jas of marbles, colours running together across the shell, so smooth under her fingers. She’s definitely going to help Miss Emily paint the eggs one year. She could definitely give up the Egg Hunt for that.

“If you’ve never been to the Egg Festival before, you’ve never had an egg fight either, right?” Jas asks quietly.

Leo shakes his head.

“I can teach you, if you want,” Jas offers. “I’ll go easy. Before I beat you.”

“You said you were good…”

“Yeah, I’ll teach you all the tricks so you can beat Vincent.” She giggles.

“Thanks,” he murmurs. 

She and Vincent always talk when they’re together, or pretty much always, anyway. It’s nice to just sit, mostly in silence, and listen to the birds twitter while she teaches Leo how to fight with eggs. And when he finally wins a round for the first time, he cheeps happily. It startles her. After only a few hours with him, it’s still strange. But in a nice kind of way, because he spends so much time looking shy.

“Pick another egg!” he laughs, and squawks straight afterwards, shifting his shoulders in a way that makes the feathers on his poncho quiver for a moment.

“Are you speaking in parrot?” she asks, peeling bits of egg shell off her hard-boiled egg and then taking a big bite out of it.

He stops smiling and frowns. “Yeah… sorry.”

“It’s okay.” She shrugs and picks an egg covered in swirls of different shades of pink, weighing it in her hand and deciding it’ll do. “I just don’t understand it. So I’m sorry too.”

“Um… I just said, ‘Let’s play.’”

“Oh, okay. Yes.” She lifts up her egg and smirks at him. “I think you know enough now. I won’t go easy on you anymore. Ready?”

Leo doesn’t immediately pick his victorious egg back up though. He looks at her quite seriously instead and then says, “Maybe I’ll teach you, one day.”

“Teach me?”

“How to speak parrot. I taught Ari a bit. It would be… like returning the favor. For teaching me this and… about the Egg Festival.”

A warm feeling spreads in Jas’s chest. “That would be nice,” she says. 

Over his shoulder, she spots Shane and Vincent. Shane spots her too. When he waves at her quickly she waves back. Leo glances over his shoulder and freezes. His cheeks go red.

“That’s just Shane,” Jas says. She taps her egg gently against Leo’s to draw his attention. “Ready?” she asks again.

They’re in the midst of battle when Vincent arrives, Shane ambling behind him. Vincent flings himself onto the grass and stares intently at their eggs.

“I don’t know who to root for,” he says. “Go Jas. Go Leo!”

“Hey, Jas,” Shane says. “Are you having a good day?”

“Hi Shane,” Jas says, biting the tip of her tongue when her egg connects with Leo’s. Although she doesn’t break Leo’s egg, she has to breathe a sigh of relief because her egg shell doesn’t crack either. She looks up at Shane and says, “It’s such a good day. Even though Vincent found more eggs than me. But I’m winning six to two in my egg fights.”

Shane chuckles. “Yeah? And who’s this poor soul you’re beating?”

Leo looks panicked. Jas, though, feels that warmth spreading out between her ribs again. She loves Shane, and Leo? He’s not so bad.

“This is Leo,” she answers, and she smiles at him.


End file.
